Queen tops list of most powerful women in Britain

London, Feb 12: Home Secretary Theresa May has been voted the most powerful woman in Britain after the Queen.

The Home Secretary, whose political star has soared after her decision to block the extradition of autistic hacker Gary McKinnon, was ahead of a number of leading female business figures and judges in the list compiled by BBC Radio 4′s Woman’s Hour.

According to the Independent, while the list is headed by the woman who has spent 60 years on the throne, there was no place for the Duchess of Cambridge in the top 100.

The ranking also hints at the lack of racial equality among the country’s most powerful women with every member of the top 20 being white.

Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh and Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid were among the few ethnic-minority women on the list.

Santander chief executive Ana Botin, who ran an internet start up business before joining the bank, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth, the chairman of television company Shine Limited, were also among the women who made to the list.

According to the report, the inaugural Woman’s Hour Power List was compiled by a panel of judges including author and journalist Eve Pollard, Conservative MP Priti Patel, television presenter and writer Dawn O’Porter, Labour peer Oona King, novelist Val McDermid, and former Woman’s Hour editor Jill Burridge.

Eve Pollard, the panel’s chair, said the judges set out to include women who wield power, rather than simply influence, hence Kate Middleton was excluded from the list.